It looked like an employment exchange - only on a much larger scale. At the convention of Congress(I) MPs and state legislators - the first of its kind - last fortnight, over 3,000 worried men huddled in tense groups waiting for a 15-minute interview.

Inside the four rectangular halls at the sprawling Asian Games complex, 50 senior party leaders, including a dozen-odd Union ministers, perused 3,000 files containing 20,000 papers.

After the three-day jamboree, the 17 Congress(I) chief ministers, 360 MPs and 3,000 MLAs and mix's returned to their respective homes somewhat unsure of their political future. But in New Delhi, their leaders were jubilant.

G.K. Moopanar, AICC(I) general secretary, said: "The feedback from elected representatives has helped the party leadership in getting a first-hand assessment of the performance of the Congress(I) governments in various states, the shortcomings of the Opposition and the extent of the Congress(I)'s popularity."

The New Delhi convention was the grand finale to the mass contact drive launched after the Calcutta session of the party. In her concluding address, the party's President, Mrs Gandhi, had directed all MPs, MLAs, MLCs and PCC(I) office-bearers to go to the grassroots and address a minimum number of public meetings (India Today, January 31).

Apparently, the only exception was Mrs Gandhi, who could not visit Medak, her constituency in Andhra Pradesh, owing to preoccupations in New Delhi. At the convention, however, she was interviewed by Pranab Mukherjee about the party's prospects in Medak, while P. Shiv Shankar questioned Rajiv about Amethi.

Earlier, Mrs Gandhi had set up five high-powered zonal committees to assess the legislators' reports. The committees, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, Commerce Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Energy Minister P. Shiv Shankar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Buta Singh, were given a brief to "look into the organisational and political situation of the states".

Some prominent Rajya Sabha members, state level leaders and Union ministers were asked to help with preliminary studies and they sent individual reports on the legislators to the AICC(I) headquarters.

After screening all these reports, the zonal chiefs, assisted by some others, began the cross-examinations. The five zonal committees were split up into 25 sub-panels and each of them spent over 14 hours daily interviewing at least a hundred people.

Before the session began, Mrs Gandhi unfurled the Congress(I) flag and spoke for 35 minutes in Hindi and 15 minutes in English on, among other things, the Opposition challenge and the need for unity. Thus she set the tone for the panels to begin their task of preparing a report on the current political situation for her.

While the panel chiefs took to their onerous task with a will, the participants too were fully prepared. They had brought along newspaper clippings, copies of their correspondence with state authorities and records of their tours to buttress their earlier reports.

Subhash Yadav, a Lok Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, said: "Those who seriously followed the high command's directive did not face any problem. The idea was to make the high command aware of the problems of each constituency."

The panel members did not accept the reports at face value. To cross-check claims made by MPs, they invited each MLA from the parliamentary constituency to give their versions of the political scenario. While MLAs and MPs were being interviewed, state chief ministers were asked to wait in a separate room for consultations on important issues.

If the nature of the questions was any indication, the real purpose of the jamboree was to assess the electoral prospects in each of the 542 Lok Sabha constituencies and gauge the extent of dissidence. The party, it seems, is not banking on Mrs Gandhi's charisma to carry it through the next elections.

The coming polls will be won by individual candidates in their own right. The high command is therefore concerned, more than ever before, about the personal image and capacity of each candidate.

The entire exercise, as one leader admitted, was aimed at screening present parliamentarians to mark out possible losers as well as search for likely replacements. The other major concern of the high command was to measure dissidence and explore steps to contain it.

Over 100 MLAs from Uttar Pradesh, led by R.K. Bhargawa, made a concerted move against Chief Minister Sripat Misra. While Bhargawa refused to divulge his charges against Misra, his colleagues maintained that the Congress(I) would suffer a humiliating defeat if Misra continued in office.

In a similar vein, four MLAs from Rajasthan spoke against their Chief Minister, Shiv Charan Mathur, and the growing corruption in the state. Among the participants from Maharashtra, there was a deep rift between the pro-chief minister and pro-Antulay lobbies.

Indeed, there was hardly a state whose legislators did not complain either against each other or their chief minister. The internecine hatred ran so deep that the attempt to lodge MLA's in MP's houses and flats was met with stubborn non-cooperation.

Some MLAs from Kanpur, for example, were asked to stay with Arif Mohammed Khan, Union minister of state for agriculture, but they preferred to share rooms with three others in the Uttar Pradesh Bhavan.

Finally, hardly 100 MLAs stayed with MPs. Even chief ministers and other ministers took rooms in five-star hotels. Jagdish Tytler, who was in charge of the accommodation, said: "We had made arrangements at all the Congress(I) MPs houses. If some of them did not go there, it was their personal problem."

If the legislators' reports on Opposition prospects are any indication, the Congress(I) is in for a landslide victory. Since the MPs evidently thought that adverse reports would go against them, each of them painted a rosy picture of his or her area.

While MLAs from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu firmly held that the charismatic appeal of both N.T. Rama Rao and MGR was on the wane, MLAs from Uttar Pradesh did not consider Maneka Gandhi's fledgling Sanjay Vichar Manch (SVM) worth worrying about.

An MLA from Sultanpur district stated in his report that the "SVM has some influence in the district because our own party workers are supporting them. Otherwise she will not win a single seat from the district." The report on party prospects was obviously meant for Rajiv Gandhi.

The convention was not meant only for questioning the legislators. Besides exhibitions depicting the Congress(I)'s history and its role in the freedom struggle, they were treated to 12 lectures delivered on various political subjects.

The choice of speakers was interesting. S.M. Krishna, Union minister of state for finance, spoke on human rights and Y.B. Chavan - who left South Block a decade ago - enlightened the delegates on the international situation.

Bali Ram Bhagat, former Lok Sabha speaker, was listed to deal with South Asia while Dinesh Singh, former foreign minister, was chosen to speak on developing countries. No more than 200 people were ever present for the lectures.

An MLA from Uttar Pradesh said: "Who is interested in these lectures when our own political careers are at stake? We would rather spend time outside with leaders who matter, to ensure our seats."

To ensure a seat was of course on every mind. As the participants returned home with fingers hopefully crossed, the zonal chiefs sat down with their aides to prepare a comprehensive report.

This is by no means an easy task. After 50 hours of interviews, a cabinet minister ruefully admitted: "I now have a thousand more files to dispose of and solve the political puzzle. I wish I had the bureaucrats to solve this too."

INTERVIEWS: TALKING POINT

Mrs Gandhi receives complaints from MLAs: Serious rifts

The 50-odd questions put to each of 3,000 Congress(I) MPs and MLAs were designed to assess individual performance and the party's poll prospects in the parliamentary election.

The questions were framed by five zonal committees - each headed by a cabinet minister - after extensive talks with party functionaries like Mrs Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

They took in everything from the relative weaknesses and strengths of opposition parties to the impact of development activities on the electorate the chances of opposition unity and the possibility of internal sabotage. Each MP or MLA was grilled individually for 15 to 30 minutes. Some important questions were:

What are the main weak points of the Congress(I) in your constituency?

Is there any infighting; if so, on what basis (give details)?

Is the infighting likely to manifest itself as internal sabotage and affect the Congress(I)'s chances in the next election?

Are the minorities with the Congress(I); if not, why and what should be done to secure their support?

Do you get cooperation of the administrative set-up in your constituency: if not, are they (officers) politically motivated, opposed to Congress(I) or committed to any opposition party or parties?

Which are the main opposition parties in your constituency?

Do you find any possibility of all parties setting up a common candidate against the Congress(I)?

In case of opposition unity, do you also see the possibility of local workers of these parties working together to defeat the Congress(I) or do you foresee any disunity among them?

What are the main talking points available to the Opposition?

What, in your opinion, are the arguments in defence of the Congress(I)?

What are our main talking points against the Opposition and their performance which could be used by the Congress(I) in the constituency?

How is the self-employment scheme announced by the prime minister on August 15, 1983, functioning in your constituency?

Has the Congress(I) got the political benefit of the programme; if not, what are the reasons?

What is your general assessment about your constituency as regards Congress(I) chances in the next election?

Party office-bearers decline to comment on the questionnaire. But it was obvious that the zonal committees will recommend various policy and administrative actions to the high command which would boost the ruling party's electoral prospects.

In particular, recommendations regarding the bureaucracy if followed up are likely to cause major administrative shake-ups in the districts.

Over 100 Congress(I) MLAs from Uttar Pradesh, 40 from Rajasthan and 80 from Madhya Pradesh have named numerous district and police officials who they charge are hostile to the Congress(I). All in all, the questionnaire is likely to make its impact well before the first election poster goes up on the walls.

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